Flashback horror for Toulouse Jewish school

Published: 06 Feb 2013 14:59 GMT+01:00

The Jewish community in Toulouse has suffered an unpleasant flashback to last year's killings by Islamist gunman Mohamed Merah with an incident in which a school student was briefly confronted by a woman brandishing a knife.

The incident occurred on Tuesday evening, outside the Ohr Torah school where Merah shot dead a rabbi and three children on March 19, 2012.

The student, who fled back into the school, was not hurt and the woman turned out to be a well-known local with a history of psychiatric problems.

But the confrontation nevertheless served to underline the sense of insecurity that haunts the community as the first anniversary of the attack approaches.

"Fear is everywhere," said Arie Bensemhoun, the chairman of Toulouse's Jewish community. "With every passing day we become more convinced of this: that Mohamed Merah, there was not just one of him."

Nicole Yardeni, the regional head of the Jewish representative group CRIF, said: "There is no doubt this was an anti-Semitic act, even if you have to distinguish between anti-Semitic mania and acts with an ideological objective."

The Ohr Torah school is better know by its previous name, Ozar Hatorah.

Investigators probing missing flight MH370 collected more debris on an Indian Ocean island on Sunday as Malaysia urged authorities in the region to be on alert for wreckage washing up on their shores.
READ

Calais migrants

French gendarmes stand facing a group of seated migrants as they block their way in the Eurotunnel site in Coquelles near Calais. Photo: Philippe Huguen/AFP

French police said on Saturday some 300 migrants in Calais attempted to reach Britain via the cross-Channel tunnel overnight, a significant drop from previous nights as the security presence is beefed up.
READ

A piece of Boeing 777 wreckage that washed up on an Indian Ocean island arrived for analysis in France early Saturday, after Malaysian authorities said the part was almost certainly recovered from missing flight MH370.
READ

France's top court on Friday upheld a ban on new cockfighting pits, as the country seeks to stamp out the ancient bloodsport that continues in some regions despite being banned in most parts of the world.
READ